Whispers in the dark
Chapter 36: Lake adventures
A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes
"You really are serious then, are you?" Hermione asked, squinting her eyes a little as the sun shone brightly into her eyes. It was currently nearing Summer, and lately the sun had been making appearances more often, bringing a soft, warm glow with it. Hence why they were currently on their way outside to find themselves a nice spot down the lake.
Fred, her current companion, towered high above her side as he shot a glance down, frowning a bit as he looked at her in question. "Is that a trick question?" He asked as he popped her a light smirk, a little lopsided as he glanced her over.
Suddenly very conscious about her hair madly swaying in the wind, she cleared her throat as she quickly straightened her hair down with her free hand. The other hand was carrying a couple of schoolbooks, as well as some borrowed from the library.
"About leaving school, I mean, y'know, to start that joke shop you and George were talking about," she elaborated, dodging a protruding brick in the street just in time before she would have tripped over it.
Fred gave her a bit of a teasing smile, making a rapid movement with his arms as he clasped the package of parchments tightly together in his hands before the wind could carry them away. Though it was sunny outside, there was still a bit of a strong breeze grazing the earth.
"You're not still upset about that, are you?" He teased, although it sounded almost like a genuine question.
Quick to roll her eyes, she shook her head. "I'm serious, Fred. You barely talk about it," Hermione replied, having to dig her heels a bit more forcefully into the dirt below her shoes as they went downhill. "I see you two working on your products all the time – now more than ever," she went on, watching with a smile on her face as Fred struggled slightly to match her pace as they went downhill. His legs carried him much faster downwards than her, and so he had to physically restrain himself from tippling over as he tried to stay in pace with her.
"And yet, I never hear about a plan of action." Hermione finished, a little out of breath as they reached solid ground again.
Fred huffed as he came to a halt himself, bringing the parchments to his chest so he could free his other hand so it could block out the sun as he looked around him. "D'you wanna go further down this path, or is this all right?" He asked, completely abandoning her question.
"You cannot change the subject, Fred," she said accusingly, but he was quick to shut her up. "Don't get your wand in a twist, 'Mione, I will answer your question, just answer mine first."
"Oh, all right, this here is fine, I s'spose," Hermione said as she spotted a nice little area that was being lit by a ray of sunlight.
Seating herself, she let the books fall down next to her as she waited for him to sit down by her side as well. Fred, however, made quite a show of it as he made a point of scooting extra close to her, an arm snaking around her back as he wiggled a suggestive eyebrow at her.
Hermione blushed, before silently scolding him, making him chuckle. "Can't be awkward around me forever, y'know," Fred pointed out.
"I know," Hermione stammered a bit as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "it's just a little bit odd to me still," she confessed.
Fred propped her a questioning eyebrow, but then momentarily broke their eye contact as he reached for a rock a little away from them, having to retreat his arm that had previously been around her back, so he could fetch it and lay it on top of the parchments so they wouldn't be blown away.
Afterwards he snaked his arm back around, though this time it hung a little more loosely. "How come?" He asked, but Hermione simply shrugged her shoulders.
"We're not really the romantic type, you see," Hermione explained, biting her lip as she still felt a little awkward, trying to ignore Fred feigning hurt. "And here I was, thinking I would get awarded for the most romantic boyfriend of the year." He joked, a big grin stretching on his face.
Boyfriend.. that still felt weird to her.
"I'm serious, Fred," Hermione said as she rolled her eyes a little. "Because we're not, it just doesn't feel like much has changed, you know? We might as well still have been just friends." There, she said it.
Currently, the idea of them being in a relationship was the only reminder that they actually were in one. Besides that it still felt to her like they were friends. Or well, flirting friends, that was. They still bickered quite a bit, as well as having fun. But nothing out of the usual from before.
Then again, this was her first relationship. Perhaps it had something to do with her, that she didn't know how soon she should head for more romantic gestures. In fact, the thought of that made her insides twirl in anxiousness. Because Fred wasn't your typical boyfriend. He loved to have fun, and well, if you were to make a romantic gesture gone wrong, he would be the type to tease the living hell out of you, even if he doesn't mean bad. That's just how he is. Perhaps that had refrained her from trying.
Turning her body slightly to the left so she could look at him better, she was surprised to see a soft smile grazing his face, it being accentuated by the sunlight that was brightly shining on them, lightening his brown eyes to a soft meddled brown colour.
Fred brought a hand up to her cheek, his thumb tracing her lip as he lightly pulled it down, licking his own lips as he did, a mischievous glimmer emitting in his eyes. "Last time I checked, friends didn't do this," he spoke softly, capturing her lips without giving her a chance to object or reply.
A soft nibbling on her bottom lip ensued as he pressed her body a little closer to his, involuntarily earning him a soft moan from Hermione as a way of expressing her surprise. At this his lips turned up into a bit of a smirk as his hand trailed slowly over her back, making its way to get underneath her blouse, but it got stuck as it had been tightly tucked into her skirt.
This made them both part their lips away from each other as they let out a laugh, Fred biting his lip as he grinned. "Didn't know I needed to pass security to gain access," he chuckled.
"Then again, I have always liked a challenge," he added as an afterthought, capturing her lips again, this time a little bit more intense as he softly placed his hands on her shoulders, lightly pressing them down, guiding her back to the ground.
Hermione had to momentarily break their kiss apart as she was in desperate need of a big gulp of breath. She wasn't kidding when she said she had never been in a relationship before, let alone kiss someone often. It was all still new to her, and she was still in the process of figuring out how to not choke whilst kissing.
As they broke apart Fred opened his eyes, curiously looking at her, but then laughing as he heard her sharp inhalations. "Y'know, although I feel flattered to literally leave you breathless, it would look rather bad for business if I accidentally ended up killing you during kissing," Fred lightly joked, shifting his body a little as he switched to supporting himself on his forearms instead of just his hands, still hovering above her.
Hermione chuckled a little breathlessly, then had to avert her eyes from him as she bit her lip, lightly nibbling on it as she debated on telling him. Squinting her eyes a bit shut in embarrassment, she took a couple of more deep breaths before taking the leap.
"I've never had someone before," she blurted out, a little faster and unflattering than intended, and so she shut her eyes completely as she tried to not groan out in utter embarrassment.
Fred, who clearly needed a second to figure out what exactly she had blurted out and to process it, had frozen on the spot before letting out a big laugh, his body actually shaking with it as his lower body would continuously rock back and forth against her as he tried to keep himself supported on his forearms.
Right now, she was very happy they were alone in this spot, being sure that his rocking movements of his hips would otherwise be completely interpreted in the wrong way by anyone else.
"Glad to hear you think it's funny," Hermione muttered, seriously scolding herself about how stupid she had been to confess this. Of course he would react this way, unable to be serious about something that was actually quite meaningful to her. After all, he was a year older than her, and almost turning eighteen in a month. Surely he would be a little bit more mature than that, wouldn't he be?
At this his laughter eased up as he gently guided her head back to him, making her eyes go open in the process as she was met with a gentle expression on his face, the ghost of laughter still lingering behind his eyes. "I'm not laughing at you, Hermione," he assured.
Hermione was about to disagree, but he grinned slightly as he propped himself back up on his hands so he could take one to cover her mouth. "I'm really not," he said, this time a little more serious as he softened his features.
"I just had to laugh because it finally made sense to me as to why you've been so awkward all this time. And here I was, thinking I had such a blasting effect on women," he lightly joked at the end.
Hermione quirked a small smile at him, but still felt rather embarrassed.
"Look," he began, this time completely serious as huffed whilst hoisting both of them up onto a straight position, having placed himself next to her side again, though facing her.
"Although it's rather endearing to see your face heat up every time I get a little closer than you would expect," Fred said, trying to bite back a passionate smirk, "I don't want you chickening out every time I do."
Feeling a smile creep up on her face at his kind words, she let out a small breath as she softly lowered her gaze to his hands.
"I-," Hermione began, but quickly shut herself up again as she dared a glance at his face. His expression was encouraging, however, as he nodded her on. What she was about to say made her feel like the dumbest witch on earth, and she didn't know if the information was safe with Fred.
Then again, what would a relationship be without a little faith and trust?
With that encouraging thought, she spoke a little softer, knowing he would hear her just fine, anyway. It at least made it easier for her to admit. "I don't really know how to act. You know, like what to do," she tried, a little unsuccessfully, but he still seemed to get the gist of it as he popped her a lopsided smile.
"Hermione," he began, his smile spreading, though it remained genuine. No trace of teasing present. "How often do I have to tell you?"
At this she frowned at him, not knowing where he was hinting at.
"My life with George basically exists out of experimenting. We do it all day, every day. It's a trial of failing and learning," his voice lightly cracked as it suddenly hit a lower octave, "all with the purpose of aiming for success. Every failed attempt is needed to learn and get better," Fred finished, then added a bit of a gleeful grin as an afterthought.
"I know I might seem a bit scary, because I really do love to joke around," – "A bit?" Hermione intervened with a teasing grin, earning her a wiggle of his eyebrows – "and I'm really not much of a guy to get all sappy and serious – actually, to be honest with you, I am trying to quickly make my point so we can go back to the lightness in teasing, but what I'm trying to say," Fred had to take a deep breath as he had said all that without stopping once.
"Is that I want you to know that you can experiment on me, learn and grow, and I promise you that I'll try not to tease Merlin's Beard out of you when you do fail," At this his infamous grin popped back up.
Hermione couldn't help but let a broad smile spread on her lips. She knew that he hated to have these serious conversations, but could definitely appreciate his attempt at soothing her worries. "Thank you," she spoke earnestly.
Fred popped her a short smile, then cleared his throat as he reached for his parchments. "Now please let us get back to the fun stuff," he practically begged.
Hermione let out a hearty laugh, which turned softer into a permanent smile for the remainder of the afternoon as she fetched her own books, getting themselves ready to work on some Weasley products.
She didn't really know how long they had been sitting there and working, but at last the sun was slowly setting, and they had agreed to call it a day as they collected their items, quite pleased with themselves as they had managed to correct two of the twins' new recipes, as well as creating a bit of a new one. All that was left was George's permission for it.
And thus, once they had collected everything, they made their way uphill again, Hermione still carrying a soft smile as she took a deep breath, pleased with how their day had turned out. Perhaps Fred was right indeed. She did take it a little too seriously, and saw the relationship as some kind of test that she would be graded on. One that she could not make any mistakes with.
But perhaps that was just too big of a grasp for herself. Obviously she knew that relationships were a lot of work – especially with two opposites – and that it would naturally result in a lot of errors and mistakes along the way. She just hadn't allowed that mindset for herself yet.
It probably wasn't such a bad thing for her to end up with Fred, because if there was one person on this earth that could loosen her up more, it would definitely be him. Because he did not like to be serious, if it could be helped. So she would have to learn how to adjust to that, to really loosen up sometimes. Just like he would adjust to her when needed, like today.
Once fully having climbed uphill and being back on the courtyard, Hermione took a few quick breaths before plucking up all her Gryffindor courage. If she wanted to succeed, she had to fail and learn. And what better time to start than now?
Gently sliding her hand to his, he immediately whipped his head to her with a bit of an amused look on his face, curiously looking at her as she clasped her hand in his and gently pulled on it to slow him down, until at last they got to a full stop.
"You're enjoying this way too much, aren't you?" Hermione smiled, and Fred nodded in confirmation, a grin stretching on his lips.
Without giving herself time to chicken out, she raised herself on her tiptoes so she could get closer to his face. Fred got the hint and dipped his head a bit lower, waiting with amused anticipation as she went in to close the distance, resting her lips on his as she lightly pulled on his hand for stabilisation.
It was one thing to be new to kissing, but a whole other thing to learn it with someone much taller than you.
Yet, it wasn't too bad as she had become rather familiar with it already, easily putting some pressure once in a while on his lips to really give it a bit more of an emotional meaning.
Suddenly remembering something, she broke their kiss right before he could really get into it. Fred looked almost scared as he saw the big grin on her face, clearly not having anticipated that. "It's quite exciting, isn't it, breaking the rules?"
Fred's face contorted in an almost conflictedly confusing face as he clearly had no clue what she was talking about.
Hermione cleared her throat as she lowered herself down to the ground, but still held onto his hand, enjoying the warmth that it emitted. "Educational Decree Number Twenty Six: Boys and Girls are not permitted to be within 6 inches of each other," Hermione soberly recited, then broke into a laugh as she finished.
At this Fred's faced lightened up again as he was catching up, letting out a bulbous laugh as well as he lightly shook her head. "You never fail to amaze me, Hermione Granger," he said in between his laughter.
"You truly are a rebel at heart, indeed," he joked as his laughter softened a bit, tugging her along as they made way for the castle, Hermione grinning as she tailed behind.
Once inside, though, Hermione did let get of his hand, her rebellious side failing her as she didn't want to risk anyone reporting them to Umbridge. The only time she had ever gotten detention at her time at Hogwarts had been in her First Year, when Malfoy had ratted on them. And ever since she had managed to stay clean. And she would have preferred to keep it this way.
Fred grinned at her knowingly, but wisely kept his mouth shut as they casually traced their steps back to the Gryffindor Tower, parting their ways with a quick "Thanks for helping out," from Fred, to which Hermione had jokingly replied "You too," referring to his piece of advice.
After they had parted ways, she joined Ron on the couch for a play of Wizarding Chess, figuring she would let her schoolwork pass for a day. She had been really far ahead of her work, and to be quite honest, she had been getting a massive headache from all the studying, and really needed a day off. To her, it was sort of an investment. Rest today, and be able to work hard tomorrow again.
To her dismay, however, Ron had easily won their round of chess, and by then the twins had joined them on the couch by the fireplace, though remained occupied in their own conversation. Hermione only had to pay attention to know that it was – surprise, surprise – about the plans for their own joke shop. It sounded like they were trying to figure out what exactly they wanted to present to customers. At least they were taking it seriously.
"Harry!" Hermione greeted, a lazy smile on her face as she watched Harry approach them, looking a little sullen. "How did it go?" She asked, referring to his Occlumency classes that he had been obligated to take with Professor Snape ever since his dream about Arthur getting attacked.
Harry lazily shrugged as he took a seat in the armchair opposite hers. "All right, I s'pose," he shrugged off, but she wasn't having it. "So, you're making progress, then?"
At this he looked rather hesitant, fidgeting with a loose string on his shirt. "Well," he stuttered, but it was enough confirmation for Hermione.
"Harry! You need to take this seriously," she began, ready to give him a good speech on why it was so important to shield him from the dark lord, but he interrupted her before she could even get started. "I know, Hermione," he pressed, then eased his voice up a little. "I know," he spoke with an air of hopelessness.
"It's just that he brings out the worst of me," Harry admitted, his face turning a little nasty, presumably thinking about Professor Snape.
"Can you blame the boy?" Fred piped in.
"Yeah, I would shoot a whole spray of jinxes at that foul git if I ever had the chance to be alone with him." George joined as well, a bit of a nasty grin on his face.
"You do have our earnest admiration, Harry," Fred said, taking off an imaginary hat and saluting to him.
"Right you do, I wouldn't last a day with that man," George agreed.
Hermione simply looked in astonishment at the twins, wondering why they were taking Harry's side. Even more so, why they were praising him.
Fred didn't catch her eye, but certainly was aware of her gaze as he made a point of not looking at her, letting his grin spread out nice and wide first before finally glancing over at her.
It was his twin brother who replied first, having caught her gaze as well. "Oh come on, now, Hermione. We wouldn't want to lose our favourite investor," George argued, a wicked grin on his face.
At this piece of information Hermione immediately whipped her head to Harry in surprise. "What's he on about, Harry?"
Harry, clearly a little uncomfortable to be put on the spot, half-heartedly shrugged his shoulders as he shot a nervous glance at the twins. "I dunno," he lied.
"Ain't his fault that your eyes have been caught up in some other business to not have seen what has been right under your nose," George defended Harry.
Fred was keeping way too quiet, but as she looked over at him she could see why: he was just blatantly enjoying this as her cheeks reddened. She knew George was talking about her and Fred, and that he had seen them snog in the hallway a while back.
"So it's you who has given them the money to start their own joke shop?" Hermione asked, glancing back at Harry, remembering how almost half a year ago – had it really been that long already? – Fred had almost kissed her during her Prefect Rounds and had told her how they had someone who had given them a 'generous donation'.
Harry clearly thought that she would be blazing mad, but after sharing some glances with the twins – Hermione could see them nod vigorously in encouragement – he cleared his throat and nodded. "It's the money from the tournament," at this his voice softened a little. "It didn't feel right for me to keep it, after you know.." his voice trailed off.
Hermione understood what he meant. Cedric's death.
Letting a smile glide on her lips, she watched Harry's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, clearly not expecting that response. "That's really nice of you, Harry," Hermione approved, a warm sensation glowing in her chest.
Though the events leading up to retrieving that money had been absolutely awful, it was nice to know it would get such a nice twist to it. Because with that 'dark' money, the twins would be able to create something that would bring joy to all. And she couldn't think of a better way to remember Cedric's death.